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Ballin Wedding

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Ballin parents

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Bill of sale

A Chelsea home bought for £15,750 and still in the same family nearly 50 years later is on the market for 175 times that amount.

Serena Ballin, whose mother and father bought it in 1961, is selling the £2.75 million house to help her three children get on to the property ladder.

It shows how steeply London's house prices have risen - and the consequences for first-time buyers.

Mrs Ballin lives in the four-bedroom house just off King's Road with her husband Bertie, a marketing and communications consultant, and daughter Annabel, 25, an actress.

She said: "It took me weeks to decide to sell it and I changed my mind many times because it has been in the family for so long. It will be very sad to see the place go to a stranger. I think when we move out finally I will cry.

"We are selling it to raise money to help our children on to the property ladder. It is so hard for the young. How can you enjoy life if you borrow more than you earn and struggle to pay your mortgage?"

Mrs Ballin lived in the house with her parents from the age of 10 until she and Bertie married in 1975. She said: "I got ready in the house and left for my wedding with my mother through the front door."

She added: "I have wonderful memories of being near the King's Road in the Sixties. We were right in the heart of it. It was so new and fashionable.

"Mary Quant had a shop in the King's Road that I would only go into if someone would go with me because I was terrified.

"It was an exciting place to grow up but I didn't realise it at the time. It wasn't until friends of mine came to London from the country and saw the house and their eyes would pop out."

Mrs Ballin's mother, Ann Goode, continued living in the house while the couple moved to Wiltshire to bring up their children. After Mrs Goode died, an elderly family friend moved in.

Mrs Ballin said: "Our friend lived here until she was 102 and we would visit often. Then in 1999 we renovated the house and all moved back in."

Estate agents Friend & Falcke are selling the house - just as they did in 1961.

Charlie Findlater of the agents said: "Back in the Sixties, Chelsea Green was really quite bohemian, not the exclusive niche it is now. The general population was younger, trendier and quite arty but many of them stayed in the area, bringing their families up and generally rearranging their properties to suit each stage of their lives.

"As a result, Chelsea Green, unlike other parts of central London, has retained much of its village and community feeling. There is a cobbler, fishmonger, butcher and bread shop.

"The house itself is a real gem. Being at the end of the road, there's loads of light coming in from three sides and there's a garden and a parking space."